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Faulty VW Golf Batch

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  • 03-09-2008 11:56am
    #1
    saltie
    Registered Users Posts: 240 ✭✭


    Hi All,
    First time poster looking for some advice/ help.
    I recently brought my VW Golf MK4 (2002 Base model) to my local mechanic because of a faulty valve part (i dont know much about motors but it was a small matchbox size electronic part of one of the four valves). This is a relatively straight forward job if you have the part.
    Anyway he came back to me to say that he did a compression test on hte valves and 3 were 160 (which is perfect) and one was 125 (not good apparently). This lead him to believe that this car may be part of a fautly batch of cars. He said i may encounter a problem in 6-12 months with the head gasket which would cost €1200 to fix and even at that there may be future problems with overheating.
    The mechanic was just telling me this as he is genuinely a good guy and wanted to forewarn me i suppose.
    Does anyone out there know of this apparent faulty batch and do i have any comeback with VW - bear in mind i bought it 2nd hand about 2/ 2.5 years ago?

    Thanks


Comments

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    #2
    Biro
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,091 ✭✭✭Biro


    saltie wrote: »
    Hi All,
    First time poster looking for some advice/ help.
    I recently brought my VW Golf MK4 (2002 Base model) to my local mechanic because of a faulty valve part (i dont know much about motors but it was a small matchbox size electronic part of one of the four valves). This is a relatively straight forward job if you have the part.
    Anyway he came back to me to say that he did a compression test on hte valves and 3 were 160 (which is perfect) and one was 125 (not good apparently). This lead him to believe that this car may be part of a fautly batch of cars. He said i may encounter a problem in 6-12 months with the head gasket which would cost €1200 to fix and even at that there may be future problems with overheating.
    The mechanic was just telling me this as he is genuinely a good guy and wanted to forewarn me i suppose.
    Does anyone out there know of this apparent faulty batch and do i have any comeback with VW - bear in mind i bought it 2nd hand about 2/ 2.5 years ago?

    Thanks

    Even if it was in warranty VW wouldn't care much, they'd just replace the faulty part. The fact that it's long out of warranty means they might even hang up on you if you rang!


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    #3
    Stevie Dakota
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,817 ✭✭✭Stevie Dakota


    All sounds very odd, a compression test on valves, I think you mean cylinders? The 1/4 is a soft engine, and piston ring and cylinder wear are common, you then start using oil and are on a slippery slope. Maybe he is talking about coil packs which are a known VW weakness on certain models, but you can't tell when one is going to fail, it just goes.

    I look forward to someone with more technical knowledge than myself shedding some light on this.


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    #4
    saltie
    Registered Users Posts: 240 ✭✭saltie


    THanks for replies. To tell you the truth i`m not sure if its valves or cylinders. I think he chose to do the test because of a hunch as he`s a very competent mechanic. He needn`t really have done the test at all but as he said he didnt want me to think he was doing me - all sounds ominous and its making me think should i just get rid of it now while i can (morals seriously tested!). The original part he replaced is literally when you open the bonnet in the centre right in front of you, looks like a car battery but there are 4 little boxes with wires, it was one of the small boxes he was replacing.
    Thanks again


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    #5
    Stevie Dakota
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,817 ✭✭✭Stevie Dakota


    Yes, that is a coil pack he replaced then. A common failure. Does your car use oil? If so then keep a very close eye on it, the oil capacity on the 1.4 (is this your engine?) is not great, so running low on oil is bad news. If the car is running Ok then no reason to let it go, but you may have more engine issues with that lump in the long term.


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    #6
    saltie
    Registered Users Posts: 240 ✭✭saltie


    Stevie Dakota wrote: »
    Yes, that is a coil pack he replaced then. A common failure. Does your car use oil? If so then keep a very close eye on it, the oil capacity on the 1.4 (is this your engine?) is not great, so running low on oil is bad news. If the car is running Ok then no reason to let it go, but you may have more engine issues with that lump in the long term.

    Hi ya its a 1.4 - funnily enough its easy on oil. Judging by comments it might be a good idea to start looking around. Cheers


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